Cowboys’ 2012 Pass Protection Stats

At NBC, I posted two articles on the Cowboys’ 2012 pass protection. The first is a look at each lineman’s particular stats, along with a league-wide comparison.

I’ve tracked the line’s pass protection throughout the season in terms of sacks allowed and penalties. Below, I posted the results for each offensive lineman, along with their pressure rate, as per Pro Football Focus.

Witten was used as a blocker on just 85 passes this season—11.7 percent of the passing plays for which he was on the field. That’s the lowest mark of his career. Tony Romo got sacked on six of those plays and ran for a 10-yard gain on another, leaving 78 actual throws. Romo completed 47 of them (60.3 percent) for 604 yards (7.7 YPA), 6 TD, and 4 INT—good for a mediocre 88.8 passer rating.

One of the reasons Romo’s completion percentage was low when Witten stayed in to block is that the Cowboys generally looked to get the ball downfield in those situations. The average depth of Romo’s passes when Witten wasn’t utilized as a receiver was 11.49—about a standard deviation higher than the average on all other throws. Thus, the ‘Boys used Witten in pass protection in order to secure big plays.